On Friday 25th October Shrewsbury Town in the Community held our official PL Kicks launch event at The Grange Sports Centre in Harlescott as we begin delivery of the project for the first time this year.
Despite the downpour of rain we had an amazing 43 participants attended the three sessions, which aim to build stronger communities and provide constructive activities for young people in areas where they are needed most.
PL Kicks is split into three weekly, hour-long sessions based on age groups and are completely free to attend, giving the young people the opportunity to take part in a variety of sports and allow them to be signposted on to other activities such as our NCS or BTEC programmes.
Nationally the PL Kicks project has engaged over 300,000 participants since it first launched and its success has been linked to better social cohesion in the areas where they have ran.
Alongside the Friday sessions we will also be starting a new weekly PL Kicks league at the Mercedes-Benz Football Hub from Tuesday 19th November for ages 14-18 which will also be free and provide even more opportunity for local young people take part in sport.
Already we have seen the impact the project has had on young people in the area, with a mother of one participant, Vikki Yeomans, contacting project lead Nigel Wellings to commend the impact it has had on her son.
“My son has loved coming so far and it’s exactly what he needs at the moment. It’s helping so much with his self-esteem and confidence in mixing with his peers.”
The launch event was attended by Inspector Saf Ali, the Neighbourhood Inspector for Shrewsbury and Police and Crimes Commissioner Officer Graham Oliver. After seeing the sessions in action and speaking with some of our participants, Inspector Ali spoke about what a positive impact the programme could have for participants moving forward.
“Anything that helps divert young people away from the streets and that gives them something positive to engage with, teaching them new life skills is something that we fully support. Managing to get 43 young people in just 3 weeks is a fantastic achievement and we look forward to seeing it grow.”
PL Kicks runs every Friday at The Grange Sports Centre at the following times:
Ages 8-11: 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Ages 12-15: 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Ages 15-18: 7:30pm – 8:30pm
